TDK conference 2018

As a result of general warming and Climate Change on earth, some sectors of livestock production, including poultry farming, need to find solutions to overcome the negative effects of rising heat stress. Heat stress also affects the meat production, the quality of the carcass and the immune status of the animals, especially in intensive hibreeds. The possible method to decrease this negative impact could be the neonatal heat conditioning of juveniles, which improves the resistance of animals to heat stress (Yahav, 2001, Szabó and mts., 2009). Other researchers could not justify this. (Collins 2007) In our study, the effect of neonatal heat conditioning on the production and physiological parameters of broiler chickens were investigated.

In our sample 80 ROSS 308 broiler chickens from the same parent stock raising farms were used. Experimental and control animals were placed in a deep-litter compartment to ensure the same maintenance conditions. The size of experimental sample were 40 bird with 40 control individuals. The animals in the hatchery were heat-conditioned for four days prior to the hatched. During the treatment on eggs at the 18, 19, 20 and 21 day of incubation for 4 hours (6 to 10 am) were applied. The eggs were at 101 Fahrenheit (38.33 ° C) instead of 98 ° F (36.67 ° C) incubated .

Based on our results, the increase in body weight of neonatal heat-conditioned birds did not change against the control group. Moreover, there was no difference in yield averages for the heat-conditioned group. Thetemperature of the animals undergoing heat conditioning was lower than that of the control group during the On the day of hatching and 17th day we vaccinated against Newcastle Diseases in the intra occular way. In the 35th day we took blood samples for immunology research. The anti-body level against Newcastle Disease in blood with haemaglutination inhibition probe was examined. Treated animal’s blood samples hastwice more titer negative blood than the control animals were.

As a conclusion, we could not confirm the hypothesis that neonatal heat conditioning has a positive effect on body weight gain and yield averages in ROSS 308 hibreed plants that suffer from heat stress during production. On the other hand, the immune response of thermostated animals and their antibody production were modified by the treatment, and their thermoregulation was more efficient than the non-heat- conditioned individuals at elevated outside temperatures.

The study is planned to be repeated with additional hybrids because, based on the literature, different genetics can significantly influence the results.